All Purpose or Bread Flour - What's to be used in High Hydration Bread??

Today (7/8/17), in our bread class, we mixed some high hydration dough in two buckets.

1 - 1000g Bread Flour with 800g water, 22g salt and a scant pinch of yeast.  

2 - 1000g All Purpose Flour with 780g water, 22g salt and a scant pinch of yeast.  

The Flour and water were mixed and let sit for 30 minutes or so.  Then, every 15 minutes or so, classmates did a stretch and fold right in the bucket (as many classmates as were willing) so they could feel the changes in the dough and this was repeated 3 times.  While I didn't touch the dough, visually, the bread flour bucket dough looked more silky.  

After three stretch and fold repetitions, the buckets were closed (around 10:15 am).  Then, around 11pm, the buckets were compared - and the fermentation in the bread flour (BF) bucket was taller than the AP bucket.  

The buckets  prior to dumping the dough to form the loaves.

To make the bread, the AP bucket was emptied first - and measured into three pieces of about 600 grams each.  Another gentle stretch and fold operation was done and the dough placed in banettons.  The covered banettons were placed in a slightly warmed oven for 30 minutes and then removed and place on the counter (covered) for 25 minutes while the oven was heated for baking (500º).  

Two doughs place on pre heated stone.  After they 'firmed up', the baking pan (with dough inside) was added  Note how flat - not encouraging.  

When the oven was heated, two doughs were placed on parchment paper and slid onto a preheated baking stone.  After the doughs formed a lower crust, the third dough was put into a 3qt oven-safe covered pan (cold dough and cold pan) to bake.  The loaves were misted with water and a pie tin with water was placed on the top rack of the oven.

The loaves were baked to color with the cover of the 'pan bread' being removed after the internal temp of the dough reached over 200º.

When the third AP dough was placed in the pan, the BF doughs were placed in banettons for their final proof.  

After the last AP loaf (the pan loaf) came out of the oven, two BF doughs were placed on parchment paper and loaded onto the stone.  The third BF dough was placed in the now warm baking pan.  The pie tin with water was placed at the base of the oven this time (as it appeared that there was still a great deal of water in the pan from the first loaves - and normally, in the course of 30 minutes, the pan goes dry.


Here is a cut AP loaf.

Not bad.  Lots of holes.  Can't complain - except that they really aren't very tall.

Here is a cut BF loaf

Still lots of holes but apparently a little taller

Here, the six loaves are compared from the outside.  In the pic on the left, the BF loaves are on top - and the AP loaves on the bottom.  But, it is hard to tell from this view.  

On the right - you can see two loaves side by side - with the BF loaf on the left and the AP loaf on the right.

After cutting them in half, here they are side by side

And, compared right next to each other, here you see the difference

The loaves on the left are the BF loaves.

The BF loaves were impressive - on their own and by comparison to the AP loaves.  This held true for all of the loaves - whether free form or in the pan.

For both recipes, the pan loaf was the tallest.  

After totally cooling (overnight), I tried the 'taste test'.  The crumb tasted about the same - no significant differences.  But, the mouth texture was a little softer with the AP flour.  

Potential causes of the difference?

Certainly the Bread Flour (higher protein) could be the reason for the higher rise.  It is good to know that there is a difference - and that we are maximizing our size with bread flour.  

Potentially, by placing the dough into a 'more mature' hot oven (after the first loaves have baked) a higher rise could result.  

Going forward   

Recap - the batches were 1000 grams of flour with 780 grams of water for each (although the BF batch got 800g) with 22 grams of salt and a scant pinch of yeast in each.  Both were mixed (flour and water) by hand, left to sit for a half hour, and then the salt/yeast was added in and 'pinch method' mixed by hand.  Then every 15 or 20 minutes, the dough was stretched and folded by the students (8) who wanted to feel the transformation in the dough - 3 times.  The doughs were treated the same.  Then the tops went onto the buckets and they sat for the rest of the class, were transported home and place on a shelf for 10 hours.  I figure that the total time the dough bulk fermented was just over 12 hours.

The dough in the buckets showed great bubble activity.  Both were very active.  

When poured onto the work surface, the dough was very sticky.  I did not do the 'poke test', but it is possible that the bulk fermentation went too long.  

It appears to me that there is no reason to use AP flour for bread (at least not the brand that I was using - which had a 'milled date' of less than 45 days before use.  

But, having about 45 pounds of AP flour left, I need to use AP flour.  Something that comes to mind is to make a 'comparison batch' of lower hydration/higher yeast bread.  We will see........